May 28, 2008

More than 1500 hits!! I hope you enjoy this blog. If you look at the sitemeter located on the right hand side near the elephant logo of Kerala, you will notice the counter. It tells me that people from all over the world have viewed this blog....Canada, South America, India, all over the US and all over Europe. Your comments would be greatly appreciated. Welcome first time visitors!

Tea Country

This is a tea plantation near Munnar, in the mountains east of Cochin. The hillsides looked like green velvet jigsaw puzzles! The plants are only 2 or 3 feet high, which surprised me.

Eucalyptus grove

This is for all you Californians-these really are Eucalyptus trees, you could smell them! But they must be a different species-very tall and thin. We also saw bouganvillea, poinsettias and I think we even saw Jacaranda trees in the mountains. This shot was taken in the foothills on the way to Munnar and the tea plantations, where the temperature was about 75 and it was gorgeous.

Drying Peppercorns

This was the first sign of local spices we saw after we arrived in India. They are peppercorns drying in the sun by the side of the road. Here they are on a tarp, but we saw thems on all sorts of material, and no one was tending them. I was worried about the exhaust from passing vehicles and the dirt on the road. I sure hope they clean the spices before they sell them to the public! We were sure if we tried to purchase any spices from the local stalls, they'd get confiscated at the airport, so we didn't get any :-(

Driving Miss Daisy

Taking off for parts unknown, I put my life in Biju's hands. We tooled around the Kallanchery Island at about 10 mph. What a blast!

Threading Video

Amy is painfully having her eyebrows threaded so she will be perfect for her wedding ceremony in India. Sorry this is so short. You can't see it here, but the thread is in the woman's teeth and both her hands. It was quite a production. I also had my eyebrows threaded and I'd do it again, 'cuz it WORKED!!

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